Featured
Illustrated Children's Literature and Reading Under Lenin and Stalin
Yesterday and today. Broadly speaking, this is the theme at the heart of my recently published book, "Picturing the Page: Illustrated Children’s Literature and Reading Under Lenin and Stalin" (University...
Open Letter on the Termination of Russian Studies Faculty at Ohio University
Like you, we are wholeheartedly invested in the survival and recovery of higher education in the United States amid the COVID-19 pandemic. That recovery depends on the will of universities...
Russian Elites and Western Sanctions: A Political Economy Under Strain?
The talk primarily explored the degree to which the latest rounds of sanctions imposed by the West on the Russian oligarchs have been effective, and explored the possible ways the...
Micromanaging Russia's Elections
The message from the Kremlin is clear: Challenge the regime at your own risk
Putin wants a shining legacy. He has to solve 3 big problems first.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has just started his new term in office and is mulling how to secure his legacy. In his fourth and likely last term, he will be...
Conflict Between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Kremlin Authority, Part II
An independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church free from Moscow’s control has long been a goal for many in Ukraine, especially among Ukrainian nationalist organizations. Demands for such a split from the...
Excerpt from Brandon Schechter's “The Stuff of Soldiers: A History of the Red Army in World War II Through Objects"
This book tells the story of that dramatic change—from a desperate, retreating band to a victorious army—as experienced by soldiers. The years 1941–1945 replayed in real life a universal tale...
Conversation in the Kitchen: Sasha Dugdale’s Voiced Translation of Maria Stepanova
Some may argue that there is a conflict of interest in translating a friend, but Sasha Dugdale’s deft translations of Maria Stepanova, with whom she is close, suggest that friendship...
One Year Ago: Russia's War on the Nonhuman
In April 2022, I reflected on the environmental impact of the war in Ukraine by reimagining it through Lesia Ukraïnka’s fairy-drama "Forest Song." On the verge of the invasion’s one-year...
The Fandom Menace (Russia's Alien Nations)
Nationalism as fandom
Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg: A New History of the International Military Tribunal after World War II
On October 1, 2021, the Jordan Center hosted Professor Francine Hirsch, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for a talk about her book titled Soviet...
“Noblemen”: Belarusians fighting for Ukraine
After February 2022, Belarusians played a decisive role in countering the Russian advance on Kyiv. The logic behind their mobilization was simple: “Without a free Ukraine, there won’t be a free Belarus.”
Prigozhin’s Fate in Putin’s Russia: The Political Roles of Aircraft, Part II
During Putin’s 24 years in power, he has often resorted to assassinations and extralegal violence to reinforce his control of Russian politics, and it is therefore not surprising that most...
"With the Slavonic Tongue One Cannot Be a Scholar": A Revised Assessment of Liberal Arts Culture in East Slavic Lands
If the first liberal arts academies in East Slavic lands swiftly attained a reputation for academic excellence, and were endorsed by both Church and state authorities, why was their introduction...
Notes from the Bathroom
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory may not be as good at riding horses topless, swimming in Siberian lakes, and flying with cranes, but his ability to bend logical reasoning almost...
Russia and the Women's Marches
The signs linking Russia, Putin and Trump invoked existing language and memes that were often bawdy and hilarious.
A New Translation of Yuri Tynianov's "Interlude" (1924)
Today, an excerpt from a new translation of Yuri Tynianov's essays by Ainsley Morse and Philip Redko, out this fall from Academic Studies Press in a collection titled "Permanent Evolution:...
Victory Day at the Soviet Kitchen Table
“Why are you crying, Musya? Because we’re so old?” asks my grandmother, annoyed. “No, no, because it all happened.”
Putin's Claims Distort the Meaning of World War II; His War may Repeat its Destructiveness
The problem is that Putin’s replaying of history is obscenely divorced from reality. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish, and lost family members in the Holocaust. There are no Nazis...
The Periphery Strikes Back: The 2020 Khabarovsk Protests and Its Impact on Protest Movements and Regionalism in Russia
Russia’s provinces are becoming less accepting of Moscow’s domination, and the 2020 Khabarovsk protests in particular signal the increased willingness of Russia’s peripheral regions to push back.